A small kitten, named Axle by his rescuers, was recently found trapped in an engine department by the vehicle’s owner in Windham, NH. The driver had reported hearing meowing sounds coming from under the vehicle’s hood. An automotive technician assisted firefighters and a veterinarian in rescuing the kitten.

Below is the article as it appeared on the Union Leader website.

Windham cat rescued from car engine

May 6, 2011
By April Guilmet

WINDHAM — He may have used up one of his nine lives and gained a few extra miles, but the small, black and white kitten rescuers found tucked inside a car’s engine compartment earlier this week now has much to purr about.

The feline, whom rescuers named Axle, was brought to a local veterinary hospital on Tuesday after apparently hitching a ride from Manchester to Windham while inside a car engine compartment.

According to Dr. Christina Barnett, medical director at Rockingham Emergency Veterinary Hospital in Windham, staff at the animal hospital were called early last Tuesday morning after a Manchester mother, who was dropping off her children at Learning Tree Academy across the street, reported hearing meowing sounds coming from under her hood.

"He was way, way up inside the engine: up by the wheel belt," Barnett said Friday night.

Firefighters from Windham Fire Department soon arrived on the scene, while a relative of one day-care worker, said to be an auto mechanic, assisted in taking the vehicle apart and removing the steering wheel.

Meanwhile veterinarian Elizabeth Ring placed her hands inside the engine, using petroleum jelly to carefully loosen the frightened creature wedged inside the vehicle.

To read the entire article on the Union Leader website, visit http://www.unionleader.com/article/20110506/NEWS01/110509919/1001.